The chairman of Council of Elders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has cried out over the growing rate of youth unemployment in the Southeast region.
He noted that the situation has imposed frustration and agony among the youths forcing some of them who are university graduates to take menial jobs including commercial operation of Keke and motorcycles, bricklaying and carpentry to keep body and soul together.
As part of measures to remedy the sad development, the elder statesman said that a council of business leaders of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation (Ohanaeze Nigbo) would soon be set up in the region with a credible Board of Trustees who will disburse funds to the youths.
Chief Iwuanyanwu disclosed this while receiving graduates of the Innoson Kiara Academy Nnewi, sponsored by the Iwuanyanwu Foundation who paid him a thank you visit for the one-year training programme they received from the Foundation.
According to him, membership of the council would be contingent on the establishment of a functional business in the Southeast, employment of at least 10 Igbo youths by the entrepreneurs.
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He commended the Innoson Group for establishing a motor manufacturing company in Nnewi saying “he has done a lot to make us proud in the automobile industry and the Southeast should make it a top priority for us to patronize him”.
Chief Iwuanyanwu enjoined the youths to take their job seriously so as to excel in their vocation and also stem the tide of accidents on the nation’s highways
He said: We are more than 60 million in population in the Southeast and if you employ some youths, it will make a strong impact on our economy and create a good environment”
In his speech earlier, the leader of the group, Lazarus Vincent told Chief Iwuanyanwu that they were in his office to thank him for the one-year training opportunity offered them by his foundation in the Academy.
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